CHAP. IV,

ON THE JEWISH AND ROMAN MODES OF COMPUTING TIME, MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES.

It is well known that, in the perusal of ancient authors, we are liable to fall into many serious mistakes, if we consider their modes of computing time to be precisely the same as ours: and hence it becomes necessary that we observe their different notations of time, and carefully adjust them to our own. This remark is particularly applicable to the sacred writers, whom sceptics and infidels have charged with various contradictions and inconsistencies, which fall to the ground as soon as the different computations of time are considered and adapted to our own standard. The knowledge of the several divisions of time mentioned in the Scriptures will elucidate the meaning of a multitude of passages with regard to seasons, circumstances, and ceremonies.

I. The Hebrews computed their DAYS from evening to evening, according to the command of Moses.' (Lev. xxiii. 32.) It is remarkable that the evening or natural night precedes the morning or natural day in the account of the creation (Gen. i. 5, &c.): whence the prophet Daniel employs the compound term evening-morning (Dan. viii. 14. marginal reading) to denote a civil day in his celebrated chronological prophecy of the 2300 days; and the same portion of time is termed in Greek νυχθήμερον.

The Romans had two different computations of their days, and two denominations for them. The one they called the civil, the other the natural day: the civil day was from midnight to midnight; and the natural day was from the rising to the setting sun. The natural day of the Jews varied in length according to the seasons of the year: the longest day in the Holy Land (the 21st or 22d of June) is only fourteen hours and ten minutes of our time; that is to say, from sunrise to sunset, without including the twilight, which is of four hours' duration, two in the morning and two in the evening. The shortest day (the 21st or 22nd of December) is nine hours and fifty minutes; the twilight three hours.3 This portion of time was at first divided into four parts (Nehem. ix. 3.); which, though varying in length according to the seasons, could nevertheless be easily discerned from the position or appearance of the sun in the horizon. Afterwards the

Tacitus, speaking of the ancient Germans, takes notice that their account of time differs from that of the Romans; and that instead of days they reckoned the number of nights. De Mor. Germ. c. 11. So also did the ancient Gauls (Cæsar de Bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 17.); and vestiges of this ancient practice still remain in our own country. We say last Sunday se'nnight, or this day fortnight. The practice of computing time by nights, instead of days, obtains among the Mashoos, an inland nation, dwelling in the interior of South Africa. Travels by the Rev. John Campbell, vol. i. p. 182. (London, 1822. 8vo.) Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. ii. c. 77.; Censorinus de Die Natali, c. 23.; Macrobius, Saturnal. lib. iii. c. 3. See also Dr. Ward's Dissertations on several passages of Scripture, p. 126.; and Dr. Macknight's Harmony, vol. i. Prelim. Obs. v. Adam's Roman Antiquities, p. 305.

* Rabbi Schwartz's Descriptive Geography of Palestine, p. 283.

natural day was divided into twelve hours, which were measured from dials constructed for that purpose. Among these contrivances for the measurement of time, the sun-dial of Ahaz is particularly mentioned in 2 Kings xx. 11. Jahn thinks it probable that Ahaz first introduced it from Babylon.2

II. The earliest mention of HOURS in the Sacred Writings occurs in the prophecy of Daniel (iii. 6. 15., v. 5.): and as the Chaldæans, according to Herodotus 3, were the inventors of this division of time, it is probable that the Jews derived their hours from them. evident that the division of hours was unknown in the time of Moses (compare Gen. xv. 12., xviii. 1., xix. 1. 15. 23.); nor is any notice taken of them by the most ancient of the profane poets, who mentions only the morning or evening or mid-day. With Homer corresponded the notations of time referred to by the royal Psalmist, who mentions them as the times of prayer. (Psal. lv. 17.) The Jews computed their hours of the civil day from six in the morning till six in the evening; thus their first hour corresponded with our seven o'clock; their second to our eight; their third to our nine, &c. The knowledge of this circumstance will illustrate several passages of Scripture, particularly Matt. xx., where the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours (ver. 3. 5, 6. 9.) respectively denote nine o'clock in the morning, twelve at noon, three and five in the afternoon; see also Acts ii. 15., iii. 1., x. 9. 30. The first three hours (from six to nine) were their morning: during the third hour, from eight to nine, their morning sacrifice was prepared, offered up, and laid on the altar precisely at nine o'clock; this interval they termed the preparation (TараσKEVÝ). Josephus confirms the narrative of the evangelists.5 As the Israelites went out of Egypt at the vernal equinox, the morning watch would answer to our four o'clock in the morning.

Before the Captivity the night was divided into three parts or WATCHES. (Psal. lxiii. 6., xc. 4.) The first or beginning of watches is mentioned in Lam. ii. 19.; the middle-watch in Jud. vii. 19.; and the morning-watch, or watch of day-break, in Exod. xiv. 24. It is probable that these watches varied in length according to the seasons of the year: consequently those, who had a long and inclement winter watch to encounter, would ardently desire the approach of morning light to terminate their watch. This circumstance would beautifully illustrate the fervour of the Psalmist's devotion (Psal. cxxx. 6.) as

Few topics have caused more discussion among biblical commentators than the sundial of Ahaz. As the original word significs, properly, steps, or stairs, many have imagined that it was a kind of ascent to the gate of the palace, marked at proper distances with figures showing the division of the day, rather than a regular piece of dial-work. On this subject the reader will find some very ingenious and probable illustrations, together with a diagram, in Dr. A. Clarke's Commentary on 2 Kings xx.

2 Jahn, Archæol. Hebr. § 101.

3 Lib. ii. c. 109.

4

Ηὼς, ἢ δείλης, ἢ μέσον ήμαρ. Hom. I. lib. xxi. v. 111.

5 During the siege of Jerusalem, the Jewish historian relates that the priests were not interrupted in the discharge of their sacred functions, but continued twice a day, in the morning, and at the ninth hour (or at three o'clock in the afternoon), to offer up sacrifices at the altar.

Dr. A. Clarke on Exod. xiv. 11.

well as serve to explain other passages of the Old Testament. These three watches are also mentioned by various profane writers.2

During the time of our Saviour, the night was divided into four watches, a fourth watch having been introduced among the Jews from the Romans, who derived it from the Greeks. The second and third watches are mentioned in Luke xii. 38.; the fourth in Matt. xiv. 25.; and the four are all distinctly mentioned in Mark xiii. 35., Watch, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh; at EVEN, (oyè, or the late watch,) or at MIDNIGHT (μaσovvктíov), or at the COCK-CROWING (ȧλExтopopwvías)3, or in the MORNING (pot, the early watch). Here, the first watch was at even, and continued from six till nine; the second commenced at nine and ended at twelve, or midnight; the third watch, called by the Romans gallicinium, lasted from twelve to three; and the morning watch closed at six. A double cock-crowing, indeed, is noticed by St. Mark (xiv. 30.), where the other evangelists mention only one. (Matt. xxvi. 34.; Luke xxii. 34.; John xiii. 38.) But this may be easily reconciled. The Jewish doctors divided the cock-crowing into the first, second, and third; the heathen nations in general observed only two. the cock crew the second time after Peter's third denial, it was this second or principal cock-crowing (for the Jews seem in many respects to have accommodated themselves to the Roman computation of time) to which the evangelists Matthew, Luke, and John refer. Or, perhaps, the second cock-crowing of the Jews might coincide with the second of the Romans.^

As

It may be proper to remark that the word hour is frequently used with great latitude in the Scriptures, and sometimes implies the space of time occupied by a whole watch. (Matt. xxv. 13., xxvi. 40.; Mark xiv. 37.; Luke xxii. 59.; Rev. iii. 3.) Perhaps the third hour mentioned in Acts xxiii. 23, was a military watch of the night."

The Jews reckoned two evenings: the former began at the ninth hour of the natural day, or three o'clock in the afternoon; and the latter at the eleventh hour. Thus the paschal lamb was required to be sacrificed between the evenings (Exod. xii. 6. ; Lev. xxiii. 4.); which, Josephus tells us, the Jews in his time did, from the ninth hour until the eleventh." Hence the law, requiring the paschal lamb to be

Thus the 134th Psalm gives an instance of the temple watch: the whole psalm is nothing more than the alternate cry of two different divisions of the watch. The first watch addresses the second (v. 1, 2.), reminding them of their duty; and the second answers (v. 3.) by a solemn blessing. The address and the answer seem both to be a set form, which each individual proclaimed or sung aloud, at stated intervals, to notify the time of the night. Bishop Lowth's Isaiah, vol. ii. p. 357.

2 See Homer, Iliad, lib. x. v. 252, 253. Livy, lib. vii. c. 35.; and Xenophon, Anab. lib. iv. p. 250. (edit. Hutchinson.)

* In India it is very common for the people to regulate their time in the night by the crowing of the cock. They attach a high value to those birds, which crow with the greatest regularity; and some of them keep the time with astonishing precision. Roberts's Oriental Illustrations, p. 572.

Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. on John xiii. 38. (Works, vol. ii. p. 597.) Grotius and Whitby on Matt. xxvi. 34. Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. p. 112. By which writers various passages of classical authors are cited. See also Dr. Townsend's Harmony of the New Testament, vol. i. pp. 480-482.

Fragments annexed to Calmet's Dictionary, No. cclxiii. p. 164.

De Bell, Jud. lib. vi. c. 9. § 3.

sacrificed "at even, at the going down of the sun," (Deut. xvi. 6.) expressed both evenings. It is truly remarkable, that, "Christ our passover," the antitype of the paschal lamb, "expired at the ninth hour, and was taken down from the cross at the eleventh hour, or sunset." "" 1

III. Seven nights and days constituted a WEEK; six of these were appropriated to labour and the ordinary purposes of life, and the seventh day or Sabbath was appointed by God to be observed as a day of rest, because that on it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made. (Gen. ii. 3.) This division of time was universally observed by the descendants of Noah; and some eminent critics have conjectured that it was lost during the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, but was revived and enacted by Moses agreeably to the divine command. This conjecture derives some weight from the word Sabbat or Sabbata, denoting a week among the Syrians, Arabians, Christian Persians, and Ethiopians, as in the following ancient Syriac Calendar, expressed in Hebrew characters 2:

The high antiquity of this calendar is evinced by the use of the cardinal numbers, one, two, three, &c. instead of the ordinals, first, second, third, &c. following the Hebrew idiom; as in the account of the creation, where we read in the original "one day-two day — three day," &c.; where the Septuagint retains it in the first, calling it, nμepa μia. It is remarkable that all the evangelists follow the ἡμερα μια. Syriac calendar, both in the word σáßßara, used for "a week," and also in retaining the cardinal number μία σαββάτων, “ one of the week," to express the day of the resurrection. (Matt. xxviii. 1.; Mark xvi. 2.; Luke xxiv. 1.; John xx. 1.) Afterwards Mark adopts the usual phrase, πράтη σaßßáтov," the first of the week" (Mark xvi. 9.), where he uses the singular oáßßaтov for a week; and so does Luke, as NnoTεúw dis TOû oaßßárov, "I fast twice in the week." (Luke xviii. 12.)

σαββάτου,

66

The Syriac name for Friday, or the sixth day of the week, is also adopted by Mark, who renders it poσáßßaтov, "sabbath-eve," (xv. 42.) corresponding to Taраσkεvý, "preparation-day." (Matt. xxvii. 62.; Mark xv. 42.; Luke xxiii. 54.; John xix. 31.) And Josephus also conforms to this usage, except that he uses oáßßara in the singular sense, for the sabbath-day, in his account of a decree of Augustus,

Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. p. 114. In the two following pages, he illustrates several apparently chronological contradictions between the evangelists with equal felicity and learning.

2 This calendar is taken from Bp. Marsh's Translation of Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, vol. i. p. 136.

exempting the Jews of Asia and Cyrene from secular services, év σάββασι, ἢ τῆ πρὸ ταύτης παρασκευή, ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐννατης. “ On the sabbath-day, or on the preparation-day before it, from the ninth hour.”1 The first three evangelists also use the plural σáßßara, to denote the sabbath-day. (Matt. xii. 5—11.; Mark i. 21. and ii. 23.; Luke iv. 16., &c.) Whereas John, to avoid ambiguity, appropriates the singular oáßßarov to the sabbath-day, and the plural oáßßara to the week, (John v. 9—16., vii. 22, &c., xx. 1.)

The second sabbath after the first (Luke vi. 1.), devтεpoπpúτov, or rather the second prime sabbath, concerning which commentators have been so greatly divided, appears to have been the first sabbath after the second day of unleavened bread or of the passover week. Besides weeks of days, the Jews had weeks of seven years (the seventh of which was called the sabbatical year); and weeks of seven times seven years, or of forty-nine years, which were reckoned from one jubilee to another. The fiftieth or jubilee year was celebrated with singular festivity and solemnity.2

IV. The Hebrews had their MONTHS, which, like those of all other ancient nations, were lunar ones, being measured by the revolutions of the moon, and consisting alternately of twenty-nine and thirty days. While the Jews continued in the land of Canaan, the commencement of their months and years was not settled by any astronomical rules or calculations, but by the phasis or actual appearance of the moon. As soon as they saw the moon, they began the month. Persons were therefore appointed to watch on the tops of mountains for the first appearance of the moon after the change: as soon as they saw it, they informed the Sanhedrin, and public notice was given, first, by the sounding of trumpets, to which there is an allusion in Psal. lxxxi. 3.; and afterwards lighting beacons throughout the land; though (as the mishnical rabbins tell us) after they had frequently been deceived by the Samaritans who kindled false fires, they used to announce the appearance by sending messengers. As, however, they had no months longer than thirty days, if they did not see the new moon the night following the thirtieth day, they concluded that the appearance was obstructed by the clouds; and, without watching any longer, made the next day the first day of the following month. But, on the dispersion of the Jews throughout all nations, having no opportunities of being informed of the appearance of the new moons, they were obliged to have recourse to astronomical calculations and cycles, in order to fix the beginning of their months and years. At first, they employed a cycle of eighty-four years: but this being discovered to be defective, they had recourse to the Metonic cycle of nineteen years; which was established by the authority of rabbi Hillel, prince of the Sanhedrin, about the year 360 of the Christian æra. This they still use, and say that it is to be observed until the coming of the Messiah. In the compass of this cycle there are twelve common years, consisting of twelve months, and seven intercalary years, consisting of thirteen months.3

Antiq. lib. xvi. c. 6. § 2. 2 Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. p. 120. * Dr. A. Clarke, at the end of his commentary on Deuteronomy, has given six elabo